Call shy birds

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SonofUlam
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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby SonofUlam » Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:57 am

burkhart wrote:Agreed shots will make a bird wary. In those cases I usually pattern his movements and try to get ahead of where he is going and ambush him.

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Do you use this tactic with your bow much or just gun?

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:43 pm

Ack wrote:So let me ask you guys this.....how does said "call shy" bird know that what he is hearing is a human and not another turkey?

possibly differnt frequency ?
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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby Ack » Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:26 pm

Ok, so next question......

You are hunting a specific bird on your property....maybe he is the only one there and you can easily identify him. You move in to hunt him and call to him with your go-to call and he will not respond. Two days later you go back to hunt him, and using the same exact call he comes in on a string. Was he "call shy" the first time you hunted him, or just not interested that particular day?

Basically what I am getting at is that there are countless reasons why a bird will or will not respond to a call from one day to the next, and it is not because they are "shy" of the call. Every single turkey call on the market has the capability of sounding like a live turkey. I've heard some gawd awful sounding hens out in the wild, and have also heard many different variations of how they communicate.....if you are using a call it's VERY hard to not sound like a turkey. They don't know the difference.

Birds are shy of humans, not turkey calls. Oldrank nailed it when he mentioned negative encounters.....THAT is what will make a bird cautious, not them hearing a turkey that yelps 20 times in a row.
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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:18 pm

Ack wrote:Ok, so next question......

You are hunting a specific bird on your property....maybe he is the only one there and you can easily identify him. You move in to hunt him and call to him with your go-to call and he will not respond. Two days later you go back to hunt him, and using the same exact call he comes in on a string. Was he "call shy" the first time you hunted him, or just not interested that particular day?

Basically what I am getting at is that there are countless reasons why a bird will or will not respond to a call from one day to the next, and it is not because they are "shy" of the call. Every single turkey call on the market has the capability of sounding like a live turkey. I've heard some gawd awful sounding hens out in the wild, and have also heard many different variations of how they communicate.....if you are using a call it's VERY hard to not sound like a turkey. They don't know the difference.

Birds are shy of humans, not turkey calls. Oldrank nailed it when he mentioned negative encounters.....THAT is what will make a bird cautious, not them hearing a turkey that yelps 20 times in a row.

this has never happened to me :lol:



how do you explain this?


four season ago I had te 5th season .....opening morning came didn't get on a bird. then midday I heard a tom firing up .....I closed the distance to about 300 yards I peeked through the bushes and could see him strutting ...I got my call out and made 4-5 very soft yelps, avery calm day out no wind and that tom ran in the opposite direction :? :lol: explain that ack?
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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby Ack » Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:52 pm

Did he see you reaching for your call? Too loud? Too long? Did your call sound like a turkey?

Could have been one of several reasons, but whatever it was he associated your call with an earlier negative encounter, which brings it all back to a "human shy" bird in my book.
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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:07 pm

Ack wrote:Did he see you reaching for your call? Too loud? Too long? Did your call sound like a turkey?

Could have been one of several reasons, but whatever it was he associated your call with an earlier negative encounter, which brings it all back to a "human shy" bird in my book.

He was strutting as I called to him VERY SOFT as I stated in my last post. ;) .....after the second note...he was gone :lol: .....Im a not world championship caller but know how to call ;)

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:09 pm

matter of opinion really on this hole thread..I think there call shy because of humans

Really though we don't know what they thinking just like a buck

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:31 am

burkhart wrote:
BigHunt wrote:
Ack wrote:Did he see you reaching for your call? Too loud? Too long? Did your call sound like a turkey?

Could have been one of several reasons, but whatever it was he associated your call with an earlier negative encounter, which brings it all back to a "human shy" bird in my book.

He was strutting as I called to him VERY SOFT as I stated in my last post. ;) .....after the second note...he was gone :lol: .....Im a not world championship caller but know how to call ;)

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Ok I need a little more info did you call to him he responded then you moved in or did he just fire up on his own.

I heard him gobble.From my truck...I did not make one call until I was in position

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:44 am

burkhart wrote:
BigHunt wrote:
burkhart wrote:
BigHunt wrote:
Ack wrote:Did he see you reaching for your call? Too loud? Too long? Did your call sound like a turkey?

Could have been one of several reasons, but whatever it was he associated your call with an earlier negative encounter, which brings it all back to a "human shy" bird in my book.

He was strutting as I called to him VERY SOFT as I stated in my last post. ;) .....after the second note...he was gone :lol: .....Im a not world championship caller but know how to call ;)

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Ok I need a little more info did you call to him he responded then you moved in or did he just fire up on his own.

I heard him gobble.From my truck...I did not make one call until I was in position

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If that's the case Id have to say he saw you. Or something else might have bumped him that you did nt see...

He was strutting when I was calling....... I could not see him from my truck until I belly crawled out of a huge vally there is no way he saw me stalking him...if he saw me approach he would of blew out of there...

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:49 am

Don't have much time right know...but when I get home I'll post another story of a bird killed on the last day of the 6th season...I hunted him all week finall got him on the last day

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:55 am

burkhart wrote:Hmm... big I don't know if can solve this problem if your certain he didn't get a visual. i ve always hunted with the theory if you can see him he can see you. so if it wasn't that this one is beyond me.

I edited my last post added some details....

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BigHunt » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:38 am

burkhart wrote:then im not sure. had to be your calling ;)

Could be :lol: I was trying to tell him I was lonely :lol:

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:45 am

BigHunt wrote:
Rome wrote:I rarely call. I go to the birds and either stalk or intercept. So much more fun for me personally. I spend enough time sitting and waiting in the fall for deer. Nice change of pace for spring gobblers to get after em.

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im a stalker not a sitter :twisted: :lol: .....I will sit every now and then. everything has a time and place


Same here. Sitting is for napping. I'm going to try my best to reap one with the bow this year. My last few gun birds have all been belly crawls.

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby PK_ » Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:34 am

Using a turkey call is a good way to go home empty handed in some places. It's like grunting or rattling in a mature buck in heavy pressure area. It may work here and there but for the most part you are just giving away your location and raising the chances of them either shying away or flat out busting you.

I have watched birds turn and work directly away from hen calls.

Another problem I see is that in heavy pressure areas hunters hunt hen calls. It only takes a couple days and the hens catch on and get tight lipped as well. So mon-Fri woods are pretty quiet then Saturday morning suddenly there are cuts and yelps all over the woods. Not hard to pattern.

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Re: Call shy birds

Unread postby oldrank » Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:56 am

In response to henned up, negative human impact and weather..
I stopped hunting the early season in Michigan about 10 yrs ago... the way our tags work is we have a bunch of one week hunts starting mid April..or you can get a late hunt n get almost a month in May to hunt em. Private is a little different.. its 2 longer hunts.. but late hunt is still longer.. any how I always take the late hunt mainly because I get more day n I steelhead fish in April. So its been a awhile since I dealt with henned up toms. When I did however i only had luck if I had a talkative hen in the flock. If I matched her calls id usually pull the flock in. Beside that the tom would never leave on his own.

As for barometric pressure. Big big factor in tom activity in my experience. Cold fronts reduces birds activity. The seem to respond less off the roost.

Negative reaction to pressure. Another big one. Ive had gobblers on public land spook from 100 yrds as they were coming into a field and I lifted my gun barrel in my pop up window. The same set up on private the birds will walk right in like the pop up doesnt exist. Decoys on public havent worked for me in yrs..private they run to em.

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